Calls went to residences in Westminster, Broomfield, Thornton

Two phone calls — one late at night and one in the early morning hours — alerting area residents to the overnight search for a missing 12-year-old boy with autism were drawing fire later in the day Thursday — after the boy had been found unharmed.

About 30,000 residences were notified, according to Westminster Police Department investigator Kate Kazell. The geographical area included parts of Westminster, Broomfield and Thornton, Kazell stated in an email. She did not have a specific breakdown of how many Broomfield residents were called, but some people who live on the city's eastern side, including in the Willow Run, Westlake and Country Estates neighborhoods, reported receiving the calls as well as text messages.

Westminster police apologized for any inconvenience, but said the 2012 disappearance and murder of 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway changed the way they reacts to missing persons cases.

As the search was ongoing overnight for Gabriel Duwaik, who was last seen riding his bike around 6 p.m. Wednesday near 126th Court and Home Farm Lane, Westminster police issued two CodeRED emergency notifications. The first went out at around 11 p.m. to a specified geographical location around his home, according to a news release.

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"Gabriel is autistic, non-verbal, and had missed taking medication that would result in him being very tired. When this has happened in the past, he has fallen into a catatonic-like state and we believed it was very likely that he could have fallen asleep in a nearby park or yard," police stated. "We felt it was necessary to ask for the public's assistance in locating Gabriel, so we issued a CodeRED emergency notification."

The search for Gabriel went on through the night, with officers conducting yard-to-yard searches within the Home Farm neighborhood. Officers drove hundreds of miles within the city's trail system and a bloodhound and a helicopter were called out to help, according to police.

"Around 4:30 a.m. all of the initial search procedures had been exhausted and we needed to expand our search area," police stated in the release. "At this point we were extremely concerned Gabriel was endangered and had been missing overnight for almost 11 hours."

A second CodeRED notification was made around 4:30 a.m., expanding the geographical area it reached. Broomfield residents reported receiving the call in the 4:30 to 4:45 a.m. window.

"Understandably, these calls can be disruptive and we are very selective when we use them. The Jessica Ridgeway investigation changed how this department handles missing persons cases," police stated, referencing the disappearance of the 10-year-old girl in October 2012. Ridgeway was later found murdered.

"We take them very seriously and will do anything within our power to solve them. We were dedicated to finding Gabriel safe and recognized that we would likely need the public's help to achieve this."

One commenter on the Enterprise Facebook page said she wished the calls would have included the information about the boy missing his medication and that he could have fallen asleep in a yard or a park. Another commenter said that information was included in the initial text message she received shortly before 11 p.m. and that it appeared to be cut off in a second text received around 4:30 a.m.

CodeRED notifications are automatically sent to landlines. Cell phones can be registered or removed from the alerts at Your911.net.

Other posts on the Enterprise Facebook page expressed relief the boy was found and that his safety far outweighed any inconvenience posed by the calls or text messages.

Broomfield Sgt. Steve Griebel said local dispatchers received about 14 or 15 calls Thursday morning complaining about the late night/early morning CodeRED notifications.

He said he understood why Westminster police issued the alerts and said Broomfield police would likely do the same in a similar situation.

"Westminster was trying to use all of the resources available to find a missing autistic child," he said. "... There's no question we would not only use CodeRED (in a similar situation), but Reverse 911 as well."

Barbara Gehring, a Home Farm resident, said the situation was scary, sad and comforting all at the same time. Police knocked on her door around 3 a.m. to search her backyard.

"All I could think is, one please find him, and, two, what incredible" emergency responders we have that stay out all night searching for a missing boy, she said.

Gerhing, a mother of two who gave her kids hugs and kisses in the middle of the night, said she is so grateful the situation turned out the way it did, adding a number of tragedies strike to close to home, but "when they're searching your neighborhood, that's about as close as you can get."

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